This book was not for me. I mention it because it has won the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt, Franceâs equivalent to the Man Booker Prize. Itâs a fictional account of the reactions of a father and his two sons caught in the restaurant in the north Twin Tower on September 11, 2001.
‘The only way to know what took place in the restaurant on the 107th Floor of the North Tower, World Trade Center on September 11th 2001 is to invent it.'
Weaving fact and fiction, empathy and dark humour, autobiography and intellect, Windows on the World dares to confront the terrifying image that has come to define our world, the image onto which we project our fears, our compassion, our anger, our incomprehension.
Beigbeder is a fierce, furious, infuriating chronicler of human iniquity and human suffering, and this book is a controversial, yet surprisingly humane attempt to depict the most awful event of recent memory.
'Beigbeder's gripping apocalyptic novel…it is, on all levels, a stunning read.' Publisher's Weekly
'Beigbeder brings this off thanks to his electrifying intelligence and vaulting leaps of sympathy with all the victims - in the tower, the planes, and the unjust world beyond New York.â Independent
